Safety features have assumed an ever greater aspect of automotive vehicle manufacture. Governmental regulations and consumer preferences have directed all manufacturers of automobile vehicles to design safety feature to promote greater vehicle occupant safety in the event of a crash event. Active and passive safety systems, blindspot detection systems, and adaptive cruise control are all very important safety features that are designed to promote greater vehicle occupant safety in the event a pre-crash or crash event occurs. One area where improvement may be had is in the area of vehicle door condition during crash events.
There is a continuing effort to improve vehicle door safety so that the vehicle doors do not open during a crash event, yet will open after a crash event has occurred. It has been a challenge to reliably define crash and non-crash events and to translate such events to vehicle door safety mechanisms and systems. The present invention is an improvement in vehicle door safety during pre-crash and crash events that uses the Restraint Control Module (RCM) to receive input from various sensors and safety devices and to use that information to determine when to latch and control the latch mechanism during pre-crash threat events and crash events, and release the door latch during post crash events.